Tuesday, July 30, 2013

My Cake Looks Like a Hat

This 7Up cake is a family favorite, well... usually we buy it at the store. This particular cake is a new recipe I modified from a recipe I found online. My favorite part of this cake? It is so moist!! Oh heaven help me, I love it.

Sometimes, the downside of being in the Test Kitchen ... cakes, frosting, filling, etc. aren't always successful on the first attempt. This cake was delicious and super easy to mix up - but did not turn out as expected. It was crumbly and falling apart and stuck to the pan. It could be the case I was using the wrong equipment since the 7Up cake is almost universally baked in a bundt pan and I wanted a layer cake.

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Not what I was hoping for.

The second time around, I went with a belt and suspenders approach: I prepared the pans with shortening & flour, parchment paper rounds, added an additional egg, and increased the baking time by 4 minutes. I'm not sure which one thing is responsible for the results, but it worked out! What a relief.

I popped all three layers in the fridge over night and finished constructing it the next day. The lime buttercream is my standard buttercream recipe with an addition of the zest of one lime and about 1t. fresh lime juice (I reduced the vanilla to 2t. and the milk to 1t.). I added a bit of green food coloring gel for a little surprise. The crumb coat is the lime buttercream as well.

I was on the fence about a pineapple buttercream or a pineapple marshmallow fluff frosting. I opted for buttercream since I wanted to top this beauty with coconut and wasn't sure how an additional flavor profile of the marshmallow would work. This was easy to prepare. I started with my favorite buttercream and added 3T fresh pineapple purée whipped up in the blender. So yummy.

I was at a loss for how to decorate this sweet little cake. Since this was a test cake, I could decide anything I wanted. I started with a ruffled cake. I didn't like it. Maybe it was too sloppy or the wrong tip for this size cake...it didn't look good to me. The beautiful thing about buttercream...one swipe and I get to start over with a clean slate.

Back to the drawing board. Not too long ago, I liked a border on a cake and remember thinking, "I'd like to try a whole cake in that." So it was the perfect opportunity. And I loved the results. I didn't quite have enough frosting to take this design to the top of the cake. No worries - just extend the coconut down the side. How fun is that?!

As I looked at this cake, it reminded me of hat. 1960s. Fashion forward.

Best part of this cake for me.... not giving up and not settling on a look just because it was easier than starting over and doing it again. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's good enough.